James Famiglietti of the University of California, Irvine will be the presenter.
Over the last decade, satellite observations of Earth’s water cycle from NASA’s GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) mission, have provided an unprecedented view of global hydrological change and freshwater availability. Since its launch, the mission has helped to confirm that precipitation, evaporation and continental discharge rates are increasing, that the mid-latitudes are drying while the high and low latitudes are moistening, and that the
hydrologic extremes of flooding and drought are becoming even more extreme.
GRACE has exposed the human fingerprint of water management practices such as groundwater use and reservoir storage, which raises many important issues for climate, water, food and economic security. Moreover, the GRACE mission has enabled us to peer beneath Earth’s surface and characterize the worldwide depletion of groundwater aquifers, raising significant
concerns about the potential for heightened conflict over transboundary water resources.
Sponsored by: School of Natural Resources, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Geography Department and Nebraska Water Center.
